Introduction

In order to maintain the lists of
NPI and reduce number of calls to your office asking for the NPI, there is need
to use specialized systems that allow Providers and Healthcare organizations
manage their NPI Registries and provide NPI Lookup. NPI Lookup procedures and
possible approaches to NPI Lookup problem have been widely described in the
article “NPI Lookup. National Provider Identification Number lookup”.

HIPAASpace
provides specialized service that has the goal of eliminating all the technical
routines Healthcare Providers and Healthcare organizations face when managing
NPI and sharing it across their partners.

The main idea that lies behind
this NPI Service is ability to manage NPI Registry data and share it with your
partners the most easy and convenient way. Let’s look on how one can use the
NPI Registry sharing system (original name is NPI
Number Database system).

Step 1. Creation of an account.

In order to start using NPI Number Database for managing your NPI numbers there is need to register in the system. This can be done very easily. Just go to HIPAASpace and click the Sign Up link at the right top corner as shown below:

In order to create an account there is need to use Sign Up form at the bottom of the Login Screen. This form requires entering of your e-mail address, which will be your main and unique ID within NPI Number Database system. In case you encounter any problems working with the site or creating an account, please shoot a message using Feedback form – we will be with you shortly to address your question and will guide you through the whole process if needed.

After you have entered an e-mail, please click the “I accept. Create my account” button, which will initiate the account creation process. Clicking on this button you will see the “Thank you” page, saying that your sign up has been made successfully. During this step the account activation link is sent to your e-mail. Within 1-5 minutes you should receive and e-mail with the activation link, like shown below:

Activation link for NPI Number Database system.

We are trying to keep your personal security at the highest level, due to that, we don’t require you entering any your personal information like name, address, credit card, etc. Only e-mail is used as your sole and primary ID. Also, passwords are not kept as plain information – they are stored in highly encrypted form in the database, so nobody can read them – that is why we only allow the Account owner to change the password without sending it by e-mail. Activation is a part of the security procedures we take to keep your data safe. Clicking on Activation link means that is really you who is trying to create and Account.

After clicking on the Activation Link you will get to the Password Setup page:

Password Setup in NPI Number Database system.

This page is very simple, it basically asks you to define the password you will be using while logging into the system. When the password is set, click on “Submit Password and Log In” button. You will get to the Terms of Use page. It is important that you read Terms of Use, since you will have to follow these terms while using the site. When you read the Terms of Use you can either Accept or Decline them. Usage of NPI Number Database system is only allowed when user Accepts the Terms of Use. So if you are going to use the system later, please click on “I ACCEPT” button. After that you get to the startup screen of the system:

Main screen of the NPI Number Database system.

Seeing the main screen of the system means your Sign Up process is done and you’re ready to use all the benefits of the NPI Number Database system like NPI Lookup, NPI Registry sharing, NPI Partners and List management, etc.

Step 2. Singing into the system.

If you are existing user of the NPI Number Database system and you have passed the process described in the Step 1 of the current guide you can easily log into the system any time you need. In order to do that, you need to select the Sign In link at the top-right corner of any page:

Signing In to the NPI Number Database system.

When you click the Sign In link you will get to the General Login Screen of the NPI Number Database system shown in the Step 1. Please use Sign In form and specify your e-mail address (which is your ID in the system) and password.

When all the credentials are set correctly you need to press “Sign In” button and you will get to the Main screen of the NPI Number Database system, shown in above paragraph. You Sign In process is completed successfully!

Step 3. Setting up a partner.

All partners management is located on the “Register partner tab”, all controls are described on the screenshot below:

Partners management as a part of the NPI Number Database system.

You will start from creating a new partner by entering all the information into the form shown above and then clicking on the button “Add New Partner”. Information about the new partner will get added to the list at the right. If you need to start your form over – click on the “Reset” button. You can set up as many partners as you need.

Step 4. Setting up a list of NPI numbers.

The next step is to set up a Registry of National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers you have or your organization holds. The page for managing the NPI numbers of your providers is pretty much the same by functionality as Partners management page described above. The only difference is that you’re adding NPI numbers with the information about the NPI Number holder, associated with it.

Before sharing any NPI numbers or doing any Lookup, there is need to put all your NPI numbers into the system.

Step 5. Managing NPI Registries for partners.

When you have set up the Registry of NPI numbers associated with you, you can define what partner can receive which NPI numbers. Sometimes healthcare organization A, for example hospital, has several providers in staff, but not all of them work with the organization B. It is not correct (although legal) to share all possible NPI numbers from organization A to organization B – only limited subset should be shared. That is what separate NPI lists per partners is created for. There you can define what NPI numbers each of you partners should receive.

Assuming we have two partners – Dr. John Smith and Dr. David Blake. Mr. Smith usually works with our provider Dr. Jack Black and Mr. Blake from outside organization works with our provider Dr. Martin-Vegue. Now we need to let Mr. Smith know NPI number of Dr. Black from our healthcare organization and Mr. Blake should only know the NPI number of Dr. Martin-Vegue. In order to do this we need to go to the “Manage lists for Partners” tab as shown below:

View of the Manage lists for partners page in the NPI Number Database system.

List at the left side shows all the partners we have set up in the system, table at the right shows the list of available providers within our organization. In order to assign Dr. Black to Partner Provider Dr. Smith, we need to perform the following actions:

select Mr. Smith from the list at the left

click at the checkbox at the right of Dr. Black in the table at the right

define the name for this new list, for example, “Smith List”

click Add New List button at the right of the list name field

click Exchange button (big red one)

Voila, we have created a list for Dr. Smith:

Created NPI Registry for the particular partner in the NPI Number Database system.

You can add multiple providers to the NPI Registry, or delete them from the list. Just click the checkbox near the provider you want to move from one side to another and then click the red button.

Important: there is no need to tell anything to Dr. Smith, once you have added him as a partner, he will receive invitation to join the system and once he logs into the system, all the NPI Registry you have prepared for him will be shown automatically. If one day you will need to enlarge this Registry for this particular partner you can go ahead and add more NPIs to his list, Mr. Smith will see all the changes automatically.

Step 6. Watching NPI Registries, prepared for you.

In the example above, assume we have Mr. Smith, who got the invitation and has Sign Up to the NPI Number Database. Once he logs in he can see all the Registries his partners have prepare for him. In order to do that he needs to go to the “See lists prepared for me” tab and find the list we prepared for him on the previous step:

NPI Registries prepared for me in the NPI Number Database system.

In this case we can see the NPI Registry called “Smith List” we prepared for Mr. Smith on the previous step. To view the entire list, there is need in clicking on Select button at the right of the corresponding list:

List of NPIs for selected registry in the NPI Number Database system.

In case there are several NPI Registries, it is possible to show the containing list of NPI Numbers by clicking Select button at the right.

Appendix A. Resetting the password.

From time to time people forget

You will see the “Thank you” page then and password reset e-mail will be sent to your e-mail account specified earlier:

Password change link for NPI Number Database system.

In order to set up a new password there is need in clicking on the Password change link. It will bring you to the page Password Setup in NPI Number Database system, described earlier where you can easily change your password.